Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The next morning we headed out to Hilmar to have our annual Christmas Breakfast with the Tornquist Family. I forgot my camera (I've been doing that a lot lately…shame on me!) and left my phone in the car, so I didn't get any pictures of the beautiful gathering. It's the one time of year that we all manage to get together, and by all, I mean roughly 50 of us. It's crazy to see all of our children playing together…

After breakfast, we packed up and headed to the Walsh Cabin for Christmas dinner. As always, great food, and good times were had by all.

What do you do when there's no mantel for the stockings? Weld a little something up, of course!

The next day (I think…) We headed to Long Barn to try our hand at ice skating. Funny, because there is an ice rink five houses down from us in Turlock, but we never managed to actually skate on it. We visited at least once a week and watched everyone else skate, but it took us going 2 hours up the hill to get out on the ice :) Laura's a pro at it, so that gave Adaline the confidence to get out and try. She only lasted a couple of laps, but she gave it her best. We did end up going back another time before winter was over and she tried again, lasting longer and holding her own a little better…but it all started here :)

Spencer found the one patch of snow that existed and spent a good amount of time poking at it with a stick. Good fun!

Hopefully next year we'll be snowed in on our Christmas holiday to make up for our lousy snow pack this year.

All in all, it was a crazy-busy holiday season (as always), but it was fun, and we were blessed to spend it with family.

We've opted to host most of the holidays this year because it's so much easier to have the kids here where there are more than enough age-appropriate toys for the kids to play with (plus, I know everything is child*cough-Spencer-cough*proof.

I love this picture so much- it cracks me up that Hayley's kids look just like her and my kids look just like me, and together, like this, they look just like our childhood pictures.

(yes, my dad was "fashionably-late" to the party, barely making it into the photo before we completely lost Spencer's attention)

The anticipation for presents was almost too much for Trace :)

(future best buds- Spencer can already say his name!)

Spencer finally got a baby of his own…and yes that does look like original Cabbage Patch Kids packaging…because IT IS. Dated 1984. Long story short, on Christmas of 1984 my cousin Alisha, Hayely and I were all given Cabbage Patch Dolls, and my mom and grandma gave one to each other (they always did think alike). This one managed to be preserved until 2014, when my mom decided to pass it on. I really hesitated to open it, but there was no way I could keep Spencer away from that baby once he realized it was for him.

I believe Adaline's love affair with horses has officially started.

I had the kids give Travis some hamburger socks from the dollar bin at Target, and Spencer completely claimed them…and he really rounded out the outfit with his new apron.

And of course I finally got a warm cozy hat for snow days on the year that we almost didn't get any snow at all.

But the best present of all came last…My Grandpa Tornquist gave every boy a Case tractor as a gift sometime around their second birthday, so my dad carried on the tradition for Spencer. Spencer LOVES Trace's tractor and looked completely stunned that there was a tractor in his house, for him. He had this look on his face for a good 5 minutes.

Since he can't reach the peddles yet, Adaline offered to be driver...

…and when she lost interest, he let his new baby take over.

Trace is ready to hit the slopes with Uncle Travis (we thought this year, buuuutttt the lack of snow pushed us off a year, so NEXT year he'll be ready!)

And Adaline now has a big-girl sleeping bag :)

Everyone says the holidays are better with young children around, and I completely agree.We had a blast!

For the last two years, my mom has given the kids matching Christmas jamies (which they LOVE!) and we have started taking photos of them in them… Because of the popularity of the re-photoshoots floating around the internet (you know, the ones where the adult children dress up in the similar clothes and recreate old family photos…), I told my mom she just gave herself a present that she will should expect to get at Christmas 2043…especially the one with Trace smelling his feet :)

Photobomb!

As challenging as it is to try and get small children to smile all at the same time, we have so many laughs and create so many memories. I am in love with doing this each year :)